"The Villages," the retiree playground in central Florida, has emerged in this campaign as an emblem for older Republican voters who want to hold onto their Medicare.

Each visit by Mitt Romney (twice this year) or Paul Ryan (with his mom, earlier this month) has been free national advertising for the developer, H. Gary Morse.

Well, not free, exactly.

Morse is a co-chair of Romney's Florida finance committee. He, his family and family-controlled companies have donated more than $1.2 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Romney.

A bundler for John McCain in 2008, Morse has taken advantage of the relaxation of federal rules regarding corporate contributions, giving at least $600,000 through six companies.

He took over the development business from his father, amassing a fortune by selling turnkey living to transplanted northerners. His companies not only build and sell the houses, but finance them, insure them, pick up their garbage, protect them from fires and send them radio programming.

More than 50,000 people now live at The Villages. The Tampa Bay Times reports that there are twice as many Republicans as Democrats.

And they vote.

While the community provided an ideal backdrop for Ryan to emphasize the campaign pledge to preserve Medicare, the campaign drew some negative publicity this week for its ties to Morse.

Big political donors were feted aboard the "Cracker Bay," a 147-foot luxury yacht owned by Morse and registered in the Cayman Islands.